[Quickie] i-Rocks Crystal USB Keyboard

TL;DR: The i-Rocks Crystal USB Keyboard, also known as i-Rocks IK6, is an actually pretty decent piece of hardware, great for the sale price I got it at, but definitely not at full price.

So a few days ago I was at Digital Mall with the Bear after watching Guardians of the Galaxy. We were browsing for a cheap keyboard for me to use in the office; the keyboard on the Dell Latitude I was using drove me nuts.

As it turns out, it was Labour Day weekend, and so everyone was having a sale. We passed by Jayacom and saw people lining up like crazy. Bear and I decided to skip that queue and just go on our normal route when in Digital Mall. This means heading up to AllIT and working our way down.

When we came down an hour and a half later, I was already half-set on getting a cheap RM19 keyboard from V-tec (despite seeing an e-View at RM17 but that was mushy as hell) when I came across the Jayacom Labour Day sale.

The first thought that went through my mind was “Ah, so that was the crazy queue.” The second, of course, was to see what they have. As it turns out, they still had stock of the keyboard deals. Of the three, only one was not a keyboard bundle.

They still had 2 units left of the i-Rocks Crystal USB keyboard, aka the IK6.

I actually still had my doubts about the keyboard even after buying it, mainly because the videos about the sound was quite loud. I wasn’t sure if my colleagues were going to kill me when they heard it.

As it turns out, it’s a case of “it sounds loud on video, but is really quiet in real life.” Which it is. The i-Rocks is very soft compared to even some of the membrane keyboards I tested, but it has this really nice solid feel when typing. At the very least, the rate of errors I made during the test was far lower than it had been on the Latitude.

And in case you wanted to know what I was typing, check it out below. Note that I didn’t use the entire video, just parts of it as the OnePlus 2’s mic actually picked up the conversations in the office.

This is a rather quick typing and sound test to see how loud the key is in real life.

If you listen to a lot of videos, the iRocks, which is supposed to be mechanical, sounds really loud. However, in actual life, they are very muted. In fact, I think they are actually much more silent than even a good old Dell or Logitech rubber dome, depending on which you get.

This video was taken in my office, and I shall stop the recording now because I think that is enough for the day.